


Beast

by Lightbulbs



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Don't copy to another site, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-25 07:25:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17720732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightbulbs/pseuds/Lightbulbs
Summary: Rokurou always had a beast inside.





	Beast

Rokurou was a liar.

He put on a smile for his attendants, for his family. But still, he felt rage inside him, a beast that fed on his lies.

Every time Shigure knocked him back, the beast stretched out, testing the limits of its confines.

Every time his mother berated him for his weakness, the beast opened its mouth and bit down harder.

He began to stalk around the Rangetsu compound, sword strapped to his back. Through daily training, he grew stronger. His muscles burned with the strain of the beast’s insatiable need.

Then one day, he came home to find his mother slain, her wounds wet with sticky blood. He called out to her, but her eyes were sightless.

Shigure was now head of the family, heir to Stormhowl. Rokurou lashed down the thrashing beast, hiding his rage under a lazy smile.

六

“Master Rokurou?”

He looked up from the remains of his evening meal to see a nervous-looking woman in a half-bow. It was his attendant, Rie. “Yes, what is it?” he asked.

“Tonight is the Scarlet Night, sir.” She fiddled with her robes, clearly distressed. “I was wondering if I might leave a bit early to retire in my quarters?”

“Hm?” Rokurou blinked. “Is it? Huh.” He looked to the room’s low window, where the sky was beginning to glow orange with the oncoming twilight. He nodded. “Sure, you do that. I’m good here.”

She smiled in return. “Allow me to clear the table,” she said, grabbing his bowl with practiced ease. “I will see you in the morning.”

“Sure, sure.” He waved as she walked away. For a moment, he enjoyed the silence, relaxing in his light robes. Then he scowled as he realized how long his brother had been away, presumably battling monsters on the far continent.

At this rate, he’d never be able to beat him…

Rokurou felt his blood boil. He got up from the table and walked from the room, grabbing his sword as he headed off to the training grounds. Stepping outside, he could see the dark shadows of nighttime creeping along the landscape, shrouding the trees and bamboo thickets.

He slashed and slashed, focusing on the downward arc of his blade as it sliced through the air. The air grew cooler as the sun dipped lower.

Suddenly, a scream pierced the air. Rokurou startled, looking around. Another scream broke out, then another.

Then came the growls.

Rokurou felt lightheaded as the landscape swam before his eyes. He looked up to the red sky _._ His heart pounded in his ears, and the land around him grew crimson beneath the blood moon’s ominous glow.

He was a coiled spring needing release. As he ran back, he could see beasts wandering the compound, slashing at the air. The discordant sound of their howls mixed with the buzz of insects and the din of screams.

A beast wandered close. He unsheathed his blade and struck one of the hulking, wolflike creatures. The sword struck true, and soon the beast lay bleeding, its blood mixing with the scarlet night.

He heard a gasp and turned around. She saw his attendant, drawn from her quarters by the chaos.

“Y-you—” She looked at Rokurou in horror.

“Are you all right?” he asked. The rage simmered in him, alive, bonds broken. His skin felt like fire. A prickling, needling sensation roamed his limbs.

Her hand flew to her mouth, and she tripped over her feet as she stumbled backwards into the dirt.

“Here,” he said, reaching out to her with his free hand. But she stood quickly and ran off. He turned to see another beast lumbering towards him. He gutted it.

The night blurred before him in a haze of attacks: him swinging his sword with practiced ease, the heft of a slash cutting into flesh instead of wood.

The rage sprawled out lazily inside him, with a grin to match his own.

六

He woke up slowly, feeling refreshed even as his muscles ached from exertion. As he blinked away the morning sun, he had a hard time remembering all that had happened the night before. He remembered the moon, and then…

“Rie?” he called, stumbling over his attendant’s name. He was in his room, but she was nowhere to be found. Odd, given the late hour. He stood and realized he was still in yesterday’s robes… and that they were drenched in blood.

“Ugh,” he muttered, yanking them off and tossing them onto the floor. As he did so, he saw his scarlet-dyed skin. He thought of all the beasts. Of his sword, hungry.

He wandered over to the mirror, lifting up his bangs. He wasn’t surprised to see a glowing eye staring back at him, red whorls seared into blackened skin.

_So, this is me now, eh?_

He tried to muster up some sort of feeling, but he felt oddly empty. Even his rage seemed spent, content to sleep.

He grabbed a fresh robe, then started looking for his sword. It wasn’t in his room, so he walked down the hall to look around the main atrium.

The place was wrecked. His brother was gone, his mother dead, the attendants missing… It was obvious that the Scarlet Night heralded some sort of seismic shift, both within the Rangetsu family and in the world at large.

A part of him ached for the chaos.

Shuffling through the cabinets, he found a glass bottle half-filled with sake. He grabbed a cup and poured out a shot.

“Cheers,” he said, relishing the burn in his throat.

六

Rokugou was free now. Free to find Shigure under the guise of chasing rumors. Free to hone his skills.

He set out for the continent that night, walking under starlight until all that surrounded him was wilderness. He made camp and settled in, unbothered by the chilly air. As he lay back against a rock, he closed his eyes.

_Snap!_

At the noise, Rokurou stood, hand at his sword’s grip. There was a noisy rustling in the woods beside him. Suddenly, a massive man-sized lizard jumped from the trees over to Rokurou’s camp.

“Who the hell are you?” said Rokurou.

The lizardman scowled, and Rokurou unsheathed his sword. Moonlight glinted on the blade’s sharp edge.

The lizardman charged, feinting right before lashing out at Rokurou with a kick. The claws on his feet gouged deep into Rokurou's shoulder as the swordsman adopted a low stance. Rokurou angled his sword even as he hissed with pain, gritting his teeth.

Suddenly, he felt it. The headiness, the quickening of his pulse. His blood was electric. The urge to fight overwhelmed him. Rokurou rose up, a feral grin on his face.

The lizardman sensed the shift. As the night wind blew back Rokurou’s bangs, he jumped back. “Hey, hey,” he said, hands raised. His voice was oddly boyish for his hulking frame. “Let’s get along. You're a daemon too, right?”

“A daemon, huh?” Rokurou didn’t falter. He swung low, aiming for the lizardman’s tail. It twitched out of the way, leaving the sword to merely graze its scales. “Hm.”

“We daemons should stick together!”

Rokurou laughed. “If you’d just come up to me, maybe we could’ve had a drink.” The laughter died, and his smile grew colder. “But you decided to challenge me. And I don’t back down from a fight.”

His eye flashed red as the sword came down.


End file.
